Ohio State merchandise revenue expected to rise after national championship

A national championship win is bringing more than just a title and trophy to Ohio State. The university predicts a $3 million to $4 million bump in royalties collected from merchandise sales by the end of this year, licensing director Rick Van Brimmer said.

Van Brimmer said this rise in revenue will ultimately benefit students.

“It is distributed to academic affairs, athletics, student life and the alumni association,” he said. “Each of their direction is how can we best use these funds to support student experiences at Ohio State. Whether it’s through scholarship, programming or other support.”

When the Buckeyes won the national title in 2002, revenue from merchandise royalties doubled to $5 million in 2003. The expected increase of revenue this time around is not as large, but a 20 to 25 percent increase could make the university around $17 million this year compared to $14 million in 2014.

Van Brimmer said “if you look at our sales over a 20 year period, you will see a trend line that goes up. We (will) sell more merchandise five years from now than we did five years ago.”

Local retailers are experiencing this rush. Karli Lump, a second-year in agricultural communication, is a sales associate at The Locker Room by Lids and noticed the trend immediately.

“Starting the next morning, sales had hugely increased. Foot traffic was through the roof. Our sales the day after the national championship surpassed our sales of the entire previous week,” Lump stated.

A retailer closer to campus also witnessed this rising trend. General manager of Student Book Exchange, Jay Trent, said their current sales are double what they were this time last year. “It has been a nice boom to our top line,” he said.

Van Brimmer said any company can apply to get a license to sell merchandise. “We really get great ideas from all levels of applicants,” he said.

Van Brimmer said all licensed retailers are included in the total revenue made from OSU merchandise royalties. “At this point everything is still for sale and our licensees report to us on a quarterly basis,” he said. The exact numbers from this selling season will be known later in the year.

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I want to commend the B1G Ten store for refunding my delivery fee and expediting the championship gear to surprise my baby buckeye!!! Congrats on a great year!!! just learned my man Judge (hahaha Mark and Lou will miss you) Reece Davis is joining the College GameDay crew!!! What fun next season…..